The hikers were a father and daughter lost in Canyonlands and a woman who passed out at Snow Canyon state park
Three hikers died over the weekend in suspected heat-related cases at state and national parks in Utah, including a father and daughter who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands national park in triple-digit temperatures.
The daughter, 23, and her father, 52, sent a 911 text alerting dispatchers that they were lost and had run out of water while hiking the 8.1-mile (13km) Syncline Loop, described by the National Park Service as the most challenging trail in the Island in the Sky district of the south-east Utah park.
The pair set out on Friday to navigate steep switchbacks and scramble through boulder fields with limited trail markers as the air temperature surpassed 100F (38C).
People that invest $350 + subscription into hiking safety with an inReach don’t hike into the desert with less than a day’s water. They’ve got at least three maps between Garmin, GMaps or iMaps, and the map they’re actually using to navigate, and don’t get lost very often. Even the most basic inReach mini augments phone GPS for positioning and vector in the Garmin app. One has to be damned near under full tree cover or in a horrible thunderstorm for it to fail to send a text. And, they’d have instead pushed the SoS button, which is literally better than 911 outside any city, which is why it’s the gold standard until mountaineering equipment.
I’d bet $5 this group was desperate and trying everything they could think of. They didn’t have an inReach or they’d be alive.
On the other hand, have you ever people-watched at an REI?
People that have absolutely no idea what they’re doing buying thousands of dollars of top-end gear is par for the course. Panicking, inexperienced people do dumb things: like not push an SOS button or even realizing the inReach Messenger they bought to text in the back country has one under that clearly marked cover.
I agree that many REI customers buy lots of gear that they don’t understand and likely won’t benefit them. If we’re making up stories: This group bought an inReach, had it with them, but never activated it.